Young Centre For The Performing Arts - History

History

Gooderham and Worts was originally founded by James Worts, a British immigrant, in 1832. The company Became one of the worlds largest distilleries and in 1859 they constructed the largest distillery in Canada, also one of the largest in North America. This distillery is what remains today as the ‘Distillery District’ at the bottom of Trinity Street in Toronto, Ontario. In the first year of the new distillery, G&W produced 849,700 U.S. gallons of proof spirits, a value equivalent to one quarter of the entire Canadian production at that time . What is now known as the Young Center For the Performing Arts was originally built as tank house 9 and tank house 10, part of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The buildings were constructed in 1888 following the 1885 Canadian law which states that all whisky must be aged for two years before being consumed. Prior to this law, whisky was often consumed quickly after it was distilled; this meant that Gooderham and Worts needed to increase storage space for their product. Both structures were designed by David Roberts Jr. who designed many of the Distillery’s buildings.